


The Below

by Appledoom



Category: RWBY
Genre: Dehumanization, F/F, Gross Violations of Human Rights, Mutilation, Nazi parallels, OCs - Freeform, One sided bumbleby, Prison AU, canibalism, disrespecting a corpse, my poor cat child is gonna go through some shit, phantom!adam, ship shows up much later, slow burn?, technically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2019-10-01 02:34:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17235716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Appledoom/pseuds/Appledoom
Summary: In an effort for justice, the Atlas military arrests every faunus they can connect to the White Fang. Blake is one of their most wanted due to her connections to Adam Taurus. Blake now has to try and survive in Atlas' most horrible prison, The Below. Meanwhile, Weiss discovers Blake's predicament and does everything she can to get her out, discovering something about herself and her feelings for Blake.





	1. The Below

Blake ran down the alleyway, she quickly turned down another and another attempting to escape her pursuers. When the Altas ship’s light had caught her on the rooftops she knew it was going to be close. She rounded another corner and attempted to scale the tall wooden fence blocking the other half. If she could just make it over that fence… Blake threw gambol shroud over the top of the fence and it bit into the wood. She used her ribbon to haul herself over and jumped down on the other side. Unfortunately, she was unable to stop herself after she saw what was on the other side. Another Atlas patrol had circled around the building and was waiting for her on the other side. She quickly used her semblance and watched her double get destroyed by a concussive blast from a soldier's rifle. Blake flinched.

“Blake Belladonna stand down! We have you surrounded!”

Blake attempted to jump up onto the roof and hoped for a way out that way when the spotlight of an Atlas ship suddenly came into view, blinding her. She grabbed wildly for the side of the building but her hands came up empty. She threw gambol shroud out in what she hoped was the direction of the building but she didn’t feel it make contact with anything. The last thing she remembered was the sudden pain of a concussive round hitting her back as she fell down to the soldiers below.

~~

The Order had gone out quickly after Beacon had fallen to the combined forces of Grimm and the White Fang. Atlas was keeping Vale under martial law until the Vale council to get the Kingdom back on its feet. One of the main goals of the Altas military at this time was rounding up as many suspected White Fang members as possible, in order to punish those responsible. General Ironwood had managed to get a list of high ranking White Fang members from one of the early captures, and now he had the second in command in custody. To think that the White Fang had been able to have someone of such high rank working undercover showed just how useless Ozpin had been. No one had suspected it, but the informant insisted that she was key to the attack being successful. Having someone on the inside would have been necessary for an operation of this size. Her hiding her faunus attributes also added evidence in Ironwood’s mind. Why else hide that when there were other faunus students? Within hours the order had gone to every Atlas knight in the area. Find and apprehend Blake Belladonna. She had been spotted heading over rooftop towards the harbor. However she hadn’t made it far once altas military started pursuit.

General Ironwood walked swiftly down the hallway of the transport ship. They would be arriving at the detention center within the next four hours and he wanted to take this chance to speak to her himself. He entered his passcode into the pinpad and the observation window for the high security pod opened. The higher profile prisoners were being kept in isolation pods while the rest were chained close together below deck. He stood silently as Blake blinked at the sudden influx of bright light from the ship’s hallway and frowned at him.

“I had nothing to do with the attack. I left the White Fang months ago.” Blake stated with frustration at her current situation.

“If that's so then why do we have multiple witnesses placing you with the attack’s leader during the attack?”

“Because he was attacking me and my partner. I was fighting him!”

“We have multiple members of the White Fang stating that you’ve been working with them over the past few months while you attended Beacon Academy. What I came here to ask you is this. Where is Adam Taurus?”

“I don’t know.”

“There’s no point in lying to me, Ms. Belladonna. Continuing to lie will only make it harder on you once we arrive. My specialists are not as polite as I am when asking for information.”

“I am not lying.”

“We’ll see how long you keep saying that.”

He pressed a button and the observation window closed, returning her to darkness. He returned to the bridge to await their arrival at the prison. He looked below at the city of Atlas as they passed over. The transport ship continued north over the icy glaciers of Mantle, further and further away from civilization into the icy wastes.

~~

The ship slowed down as it approached the air dock. If you were to look down at the prison from above all you would see is a seemingly random airship dock in the middle of a frozen wasteland with nothing around for hundreds of miles. That was the secret to Atlas’ most secure prison. It was completely underground. The ship set down and the knights began unloading the cargo of dozens of captured Faunus. All of which are suspected to be members of the White Fang. Long lines of chained men and women were lead towards what looked to be a small building on the edge of the air dock.

Blake watched them all disappear from her position a little ways behind the end of the line. She had been placed in manacles and fetters and was flanked on both sides by knights. She seemed to be the only high security prisoner on this trip as she stood there alone. The wind froze her to her core as it began picking up and tossing small amounts of snow in her face. With suppressed aura from the special huntsman anklet and just her combat outfit she was freezing. The only sounds around her were the crunching of snow, the soft beeping of the aura supresson anklet, and the distant howling of the wind. Her anxiety about the situation grew with every beep. Eventually her guards seemed to get the order to bring her in as she was suddenly pushed from behind and almost fell from the force. She quickly found her balance and shuffled forward as quickly as the fetters around her ankles would let her. The door of the small building opened and the knights shoved her inside before them. Now that she was inside she could see that this building was just an elevator leading down into the prison.

She turned around and got what she realized would be her last glimpse of sunlight before the door slammed shut and the elevator started moving slowly down into the earth.

After what seemed like hours passed the elevator finally stopped and the door slid open. The knights shoved her out the open door and Blake stumbled out of the elevator and the doors closed once more. She was alone. The room she found herself in was plain, with only a table and chair in the center and a steel door on the other side. Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait around for long before a man with a clipboard marched through that door and sat down.

“Belladonna?” He read off his paper with disdain, as if he was really disgusted with his job. Blake just nodded, not wanting to fully acknowledge that she was here.

“High security, huntsman procedures, non-surgical intake…” He mumbled over his clipboard for a minute and started entering codes on his scroll. The fetters on her ankles unlocked and fell off and a new guard entered the room. The guard walked up behind her and pushed her on the shoulder.

She stumbled forward a bit but quickly started walking forward towards the steel door. It opened and on the other side was another plain room. This time with shelves of orange prison uniforms lining the walls and a large chair in the center of the room with what looked like restraints on it. Another guard was waiting for them in this room as well as what looked like a doctor. The guards grabbed her arms and she reflexively tensed up. The third guard hit another button on his scroll and her manacles unlocked and fell off. The guards tightened their grip as the doctor pulled on a pair of gloves and walked over to her.

“Initial observations. Feline.” He grabbed one of her ears and looked in it as if he was looking for ear mites or fleas. “Clean.” He grabbed her jaw very roughly and forced her mouth open. He ran his other hand around in her mouth for a minute before speaking again. “Short canines, extraction not required.” He backed away and nodded to the guards.

Blake tensed up immensely as the guards quickly began removing her clothes. She struggled against them but they stripped her quickly before once again restraining her. The doctor came back over and poked and prodded her all over. The shame of it all came crashing down on her all at once due to being exposed in such a way. Blake blocked out everything that was happening to her until she was brought back into reality by someone shoving a uniform in her hands.

“Get dressed.” The guards let her go for a second and she quickly pulled on the one piece jumpsuit. It was stiff and uncomfortable. The built in bra and underwear just made everything worse too. As soon as she zipped up the front the guards grabbed her arms and started walking her towards the chain in the middle of the room. She was forced into the chair and the restraints immediately closed. She struggled for a moment before giving up, she was completely unable to move. The guard with the clipboard came over and pulled up the sleeve on her left arm, revealing her forearm. He pressed a button on his scroll and an arm came out of the chair.

The arm came down towards her arm and Blake realized what this was and started struggling again. At the end of the arm was a small needle and as the arm got closer a high pitched buzzing started and the needle started vibrating.

“It will be easier for you if you don’t struggle. We have to give you your prison number and this way it’s easily accessible.”

The needle painfully etched out a number on Blake’s arm. She looked over and saw the bleeding numbers that would forever remind her of this place.

“From now on you will be 03222013. Don’t forget it.” He chuckled darkly. She hoped that this would be the end of it but the chair did not release her. Instead she heard a buzzing coming from behind her but when she turned to look a hand grabbed her head and forced her to look forward. The buzzing got closer to her head and she tensed up and her eyes widened as she felt her head become lighter and felt something falling on her shoulders.

“You never know what bugs you animals carry with you when you enter. It’s safer for everyone this way.” The doctor behind her stated matter of factly as he continued to remove all of her hair. She flinched with pain as he took no care when shaving around her ears and would nick them with every pass. After a few minutes he seemed to finish and the chair finally released released her. One of the guards threw a pair of boots at her and before she could fully tie them up they forced her out the door.

Instead of another intake room the door opened up to a cave. The ceiling here was at least twenty feet high and all around her she could see dozens of Faunus being lead around and followed by guards. She could hear the sounds of mining being done in the distance and most of the Faunus looked sick, or at least extremely miserable. The guard behind her gave her one final shove forward before speaking.

“Welcome to The Below"


	2. The New Normal

Compared to the small intake rooms she was just in, it was almost like Blake was outside again. The cavern ceiling must have been at least 30 feet high in the center. There was no border between ceiling and wall and the whole cavern was smoothed out as if worn down over eons. All around the edges of the cave were tunnels and doors. All looking the same as the next. If you didn’t know your way around or had a guide you would get lost very quickly just in the main area. Nevermind trying to find your way through the tunnels. Blake stood there for a moment and shivered. It was also almost as cold as the surface down here. The lack of wind not really having any effect on the temperature. She realized she didn't know where to go so she went to look around a bit more.

“Hey! Fresh meat! Get in line!” Blake was knocked out of her taking in of her surroundings by a nearby guard. He was waving a small group of prisoners into a door with a stun baton and shouting for her to join the group. She quickly stumbled her way over there, her issued shoes were a few sizes too big and it made it hard for her to walk. She hurried her way through the door and saw that she had been lead into what looked like a cafeteria.

It was a very small cafeteria for the number of inmates she had seen rushing around outside. There was just one long table in the center and everyone else that was lead in was in a line at the far end of the room. She joined in and everyone slowly got food. Or well, it was supposed to be food. The grey sludge that was dropped on her tray was a congealed mass that mushy while also being horribly thick. Thrown on top of it with no regard was what looked like it had one point been a piece of bread. The sound it made when it hit her tray sounded like a large rock hitting a metal roof. It was also grey with little spots of green around the edges. After getting her “food” she saw that there was barely any space for her to squeeze in at the end of the table. She didn’t dare try to sit on the floor on in a corner due to the stern look of the guard standing near the door. The other prisoners scooted together more on one side so that Blake could squeeze in on the end. She stared at what was supposed to be food without making a move towards eating it.

“I’d eat that up if I were you, dearie. They only feed us once a day and this is it.” An older wolf faunus next to her said with a sort of sad kindness, “I know it's not very appetizing but its what we’ve got.”

Blake looked again at the mass on her plate. They weren’t given any utensils so she used the piece of what she assumed was supposed to be bread and scooped some of the sludge into her mouth. It took literally all of her willpower not to immediately projectile vomit. The sludge was somehow gritty like sawdust but also slimy like mucus. She forced herself to chew it and found that there were hard chunks of who knows what in there too. She forcibly swallowed and could feel a horrible lump move all the way down her throat. She gagged but managed not to throw up.

“Good job kid, you’re the first one I haven't seen vomit on their first bite.” Said a man with curly hair down at the other end of the table. “They call me Curly, you can guess why.” At first glance, she couldn’t tell what his traits were, but then she noticed peeking out of his curls was two blunted horns. Her eyes widened with the realization of what must have happened. He looked inquisitively at her for a moment before realizing what she was looking at. “Oh yeah, my horns, we’ll tell you about that tonight when we get the chance in the barrack. Oh, and welcome to barrack thirty-four.”

Everyone sort of nodded and gave some semblance of a greeting to her. There were eleven others here that seemed to make up all of barrack thirty-four. Blake looked down the table at everyone. A few others also had blunted horns or antlers, It was actually pretty hard to tell at this point. There were two girls who looked very similar to each other, both in looks and in blunted antlers. They looked like they were either sisters or mother and daughter as one of them looked very young. Way too young to be in a place like this. She couldn’t be older than 10. There were a few she couldn’t quite figure out what type of faunus they were, but she noticed that they had pretty heavy bandages on their hands and when they opened their mouths to eat it looked almost as if some of their teeth had been removed. One thing for sure was that everyone seemed rather worse for wear. Blake realized she was staring and went back to her food. If you could even call it that.

The second bite was somehow easier than the first and before long she found her plate empty. It felt like a stone had taken up residence in her stomach. She had barely put down her fork when the sharp shrill of a whistle violated her ears.

“Alright, that's enough eating. Back to work with all of you.” The guard gruffly ordered while waving everybody out the door. Blake ended up at the end of the line and did her best not to fall behind with the quick pace that the guard set for them. They half-jogged down a tunnel that to Blake looked like all the others. They turned down many different paths. Right and left and straight. The tunnels went deeper and deeper into the earth as well. After what felt like 20 minutes Blake started hearing the sound of drills and picks. 

Dust mining was an extremely dangerous operation. Dust crystals formed in clusters in small pockets under the ground. The problem is that there is no way to stabilize the crystals before they are mined. If you don't know exactly where a cluster is there is a high chance you will cause an explosion with a stray spark from a pickaxe. That happens quite often in mines where the budget doesn't allow for energy sensing equipment. The Below was one of these mines. 

They hadn’t even gotten to the end of the tunnel before an explosion rocked the walls. A few small pieces of rock fell from the roof as Blake heard screams echo from further down the tunnel. 

“Looks like the rest of your shift will be clearing rubble. Keep moving!” The guard shoved the lion faunus at the front of the line forward forcing everyone to continue what now felt like a death march.

“Don’t be afraid child,” spoke the elderly wolf faunus from behind her, “It happens all the time down here.” 

“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Blake stated plainly. 

As they walked closer to where the explosion had been, the air became thick with dirt and smoke. The sharp burning smell that filled the air confirmed that it had been fire crystals that had been detonated. From far off, what must have been in another tunnel, Blake heard the echo of another explosion going off. She turned slightly behind her and whispered a question.

“Does any dust make it out of here or does it all explode like that?”

“Mostly explosions, but they’re rarely big enough to cause a cave in. By the way, my name is Azul. What’s your's?”

“Blake, Blake Belladonna.”

“Belladonna! Asssss in the Belladonna’ssssss?” A snake faunus from farther up the line suddenly interjected. His long forked tongue causing his vocal quirk.

“Yes, Ghira Belladonna is my father.” Blake regretted saying her full name but maybe the recognition could help in here. 

“How far the White Fang hasssss fallen for itsssss leader’sssss daughter to be brought to a placccce like thissssss.” The snake faunus lamented.

“Ghira hasn’t been the leader of the Fang in years Berdea,” Curly interjected. “Get with the times.”

“EVERYBODY SHUT UP BACK THERE!” The guard suddenly yelled promptly ending the conversation.

As they got closer to the end of the tunnel Blake started seeing other groups of faunus working along the walls. Guards were making sure that nobody had even a moments rest between every swing of a pick. The workers looked worse for wear. Many had untreated wounds and their uniforms were torn and stained. Blake watched as a man collapsed out of pure exhaustion and could not find the strength to stand again. A nearby guard beat him with his nightstick until he no longer moved at all. Such was people’s fate here it seemed.

Eventually, they reached an empty space in the wall. The guard stopped walking and pointed towards the tools lying on the ground, seemingly left by the last group to work that section. Blake watched as everyone else picked up a pick or a shovel and she did the same. The shovel she picked up was oddly moist on the handle and when she looked she noticed it was soaked with blood. She tried to wipe it off but Azul intervened.

“If you don’t start digging then the guard will beat you until you do. Don’t worry about the blood dear, if it bothers you we can trade.” Azul offered her shovel and Blake took it. She followed Azul’s lead and began shoveling the rubble that the others broke out of the walls and placed it in a pile. Every so often a team of faunus pulling a cart would come by and she would shovel the rubble into the cart. 

The digging was mind-numbing work and Blake observed the other groups in an attempt to keep her from going insane so quickly. They were all doing the same thing as her group so it wasn't very entertaining. But then she saw a monkey faunus across the tunnel from her unearth a fire dust crystal. It wasn’t too large but he quickly hid it with his hand and looked around. Satisfied that no one saw it he quickly shoved it into his uniform and hid it. Azul seemed to have noticed it too, as she looked at Blake with a worried expression. The guard on the other side of the tunnel began to beckon his group to leave and the monkey faunus began to follow, seeming proud that he would be able to get out with a dust crystal. Instead, he took a step and slipped on some loose rubble. As soon as he fell to the floor the crystal in his uniform detonated. When the dust cleared all that was left of him was an oily smear on the floor and viscera splattered on the walls. Blake’s hand shook as she lifted it up and scraped a piece of bloody skin off of her face. Azul put a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her before continuing to work. She whispered something, only loud enough for Blake to hear.

“People die all the time here Blake, you learn to cope with it. If you don’t, you will end up like him. Forgotten under the rubble.”

Blake cast her eyes to the floor and continued working in silence.


	3. Disaster

Time passed and yet stood still. All that was around her was the sound of pickaxes and the occasional yell of a guard, forcing someone to work faster. After what seemed like an eternity, the nearest guard ordered her barrack group to stop working and walk back up the tunnel. Blake had to practically rip her hands off of the shovel. She winced as the rough wood of the handle tore at the newly formed blisters that covered her hands. As they were escorted back up the tunnel, Blake tried to stretch out her stiffened fingers but they refused to move. 

Eventually, they made it back up the tunnel and guard escorted them down another one. After a short walk, they came out into a large cavern. Blake gawked at the sight before her as going what could easily be hundreds of feet in the air were rows and rows of doors. Going up and up the walls. There were narrow stairs and even narrower paths carved between each row of eight. The guard didn’t pause as they started the trek up the wall. Blake did her best to keep her balance as this part of the caverns was carved out of pure ice that formed in a deep underground sea. The guard had ice spikes in his shoes but the worn, oversized boots she had been issued had no grip left. Each step threatened to throw her down the side and onto the cavern floor below. After five fights of uneven slippery stairs, the guard suddenly stopped and opened a door. Everyone quickly shuffled in and the door was slammed and shut behind them.

Whatever Blake had been expecting for housing here this was somehow even worse. It was just a square room of ice. Nothing else. Everyone had gravitated to a spot on the wall but there was barely enough room for everyone to sit. There was no way everyone could lie down. The ceiling was too short for her to stand up fully, Weiss probably wouldn’t be able to stand up straight in here the ceiling was so low.. Blake just kind of stood awkwardly in front of the door, not knowing where she could fit.

“Come here child, Let me take a look at your hands,” Azul spoke up from her position sitting directly across from the door.

Blake carefully stepped over everyone’s feet as she went and sat down in front of the elderly faunus. Her hands shook from the cold and the pain as she presented them. Azul carefully took Blake’s hands in her aged palms. Her hands felt as if they were made from tough leather. No doubt built up calluses from years of hard labor in this terrible place. After a short observation of the open sores, Azul reached down and tore a section off of Blake’s pant leg where it was too long for her. She nodded at Curly and he pulled what looked like a few flakes of fire dust out of his jumpsuit. He stood up and rubbed it into the low ceiling causing water to drip down onto Blake’s hands. She winced as the cold water slowly rinsed out the wounds. Azul then carefully wrapped Blake’s hands in the piece of torn cloth.

“I’m sure you have questions child, but let’s start with introductions. I am Azul Dorada, I’ve been in this prison for longer than any of you have been alive. You’ve met Curly of course,” She pointed to him and he gave a little wave with a smile. “He was caught stealing bread from a dumpster behind a bakery.” Blake knew that the reasons people were sent here could be minor but she was pretty sure that wasn’t even a misdemeanor.

One by one Azul introduced everyone. The snake faunus, Berdea, was incarcerated for protesting the opening of a new dust mine. The two deer faunus that looked alike turned out to be sisters. The older one was named Lys and her sister was called Sunny. Lys had fought off a soldier who had tried to kiss her sister, so they both were sent here. Each story was the same. If a faunus minorly annoyed a human in Atlas, they were sent here for life. 

“Now that we’ve all introduced ourselves, why are you here Blake?”

Blake took a deep breath and spoke. “I was accused of aiding the White Fang in the attack of Beacon Academy.”

Silence reigned. Everyone just looked at each other in shock until a bear faunus they called Littlebird broke the silence.

“There was an attack on Beacon Academy? By the White Fang?” Littlebird was younger than most of the others and spoke with a lisp, on account of his front teeth having all been removed. That's why they called him that.

Everyone looked shocked to learn of the attack but no one else spoke. Blake explained Adam and the Vale branches extreme views and the fall of Beacon. The shocked silence continued until Azul finally broke it.

“I am sorry that you were accused of helping with such a terrible event and that it brought you here. But now is not the time to dwell on the past. Do you have any questions for us?” Azul patted Blake’s leg and gave her a small smile.

“I do have a few questions. I assume they blunted your horns?” She turned towards Curly as she asked her question.

He nodded and started to speak, “Yeah. They cut off all horns and claws as well as remove fangs. For ‘safety’ reasons. Mostly so it’s harder to attack guards.” He grabbed Littlebird’s hand and lifted it in the air. Blake almost threw up a bit in her mouth as she saw the gnarled, stumps his fingers had been turned into as the tips of them with his claws had been removed. They had barely seemed to heal at all correctly and Blake could swear she could see some bone sticking out of one of them. 

After a few moments, Blake asked another question. “Why does everything in here seem like a safety hazard? Do they want all their workers to die?”

Azul answered simply. “Yes. No one leaves The Below alive.”

Blake’s ears drooped with the confirmation of her worst fears. She would never leave here alive. Azul patted her on the leg and gave her a sad smile before turning to everyone else.

“Everyone should get some sleep before the next shift. Just in case this is just a short rest.”

Slowly everyone started drifting off right where they sat. Blake, being in the middle of everyone, curled up and tried to sleep. Eventually, it did.

Suddenly Blake was woken by a loud banging noise. It was a guard, a different one this time, and they were all escorted down the tunnels to work. Blake’s stomach hurt with emptiness and the pain only increased as she worked herself to the bone down in the mine. Hours of work then escorted back up to eat the sludge they call food then back down to mine.

This mind-numbing routine continued for what could have easily been days or weeks. Blake couldn’t tell anymore. There was no way to gage time down here. Sometimes they rested for a long time and sometimes for hardly any time at all. The only way that Blake knew that time was passing at all was that her hair was slowly growing back. It had been long enough that she had a good inch of growth before it happened.

They had been sent all the way down near the end of one of the mining tunnels. The team up the tunnel from them hit a large vein of dust and it went off. The explosion caused the top of the tunnel to collapse. The rock fell with a deafening roar and a stray piece hit Blake in the head, knocking her unconscious. 

She awoke with a cough and looked around. It was dark. The only thing lighting the area was the faint glow of dust in the walls. The space was completely enclosed by rock and rubble littered the floor. Curly and Berdea were attempting to dig out but every time they moved a rock another fell in its place. She slowly got up but quickly fell again. She felt dizzy but noticed that she could activate her aura. She looked down and saw that her anklet had been damaged in the cave-in. She waited for her aura to regenerate a bit but she had grown so weak with work and the food that it didn’t help much.

She heard a groan next to her and took a sharp breath. Azul had been hit in the head and was bleeding quite a bit. Lys and Sunny were trying to stop the bleeding but it wasn’t doing much good. Littlebird was lying on the ground crying at the back of the tunnel and Blake couldn’t see anyone else. They could be dead for all she knew but one thing was for sure.

They were trapped.


	4. Three Paths

Time passed slowly. Curly and Berdea had long since given up on trying to dig out and everyone just focused on conserving air. Azul had woken up but she was barely lucid. Her head injury really affecting her. Littlebird was still crying but his tears had dried up long ago. They could all feel themselves growing weaker by the second. 

They all sat in silence. Blake drifted in and out of consciousness, it felt like days had passed. They were waiting for death to come. Blake’s stomach hurt so bad. She didn’t know if she would die of suffocation or starvation first. Blake looked over at Azul, she looked as if she was sleeping but her chest wasn’t rising or falling. Blake touched her arm and it was icy cold. She was dead. Blake took a minute to mourn and silently alerted the others to her passing. 

It was then she saw it. Like a flash in the corner of her eye, she saw something move. A figure appeared before her kneeling over the body. He was like a ghost, translucent and a pale white, but it was who he was that made Blake shiver in fear. It was Adam. It was strange though, this Adam didn’t feel like her abuser. He looked sad as he looked at Azul’s body. Not full of anger or vengeance, just sad. Blake shook her head but he didn’t disappear. No one else seemed to notice him either. Slowly and overly smoothly, as if he was made of water, he stood up and pointed to the sharp blade of a nearby shovel. He then pointed to Azul’s body and disappeared, as if he was a candle flame that had been snuffed out. Realization hit her like a brick.

She needed to eat if she wanted to survive.

Blake looked at the shovel and at Azul with a sickening twist developing in her stomach. Determination struck her like a bullet to the brain and Blake suddenly grabbed the shovel and started to chop at Azul’s body. She started crying as she heard elderly bones snap easily under the force. Blake ripped a chunk out of her arm and started to eat. She could feel strength begin to seep back into her body with every bite.

“BLAKE WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!?” Burdea yelled when he saw what she was doing. 

She handed him a chunk of flesh and stated simply. “We need to eat if want to survive.”

Burdea looked at the meat with disgust but slowly took it and ate it. Blake handed food to the others and they all solemnly ate. They would survive for a little while longer now, but who knows how much longer that will be.

~~

Weiss hated being back in Atlas. She was alone again. It was nothing short of a miracle that she hadn’t snapped at the father or brother while cooped up in this 5000 square foot cage. Her father had forced her to do several singing performances of course. All of them boring and cementing in her head how badly she wanted to leave. 

She was practicing her summoning in her room when there was a knock at the door.

“Who is it?” Weiss asked without stopping her glyphs.

“It’s just me Ms. Schnee,” Klein’s voice answered from the other side of the door, “I’ve found out some news you will be interested in.”

Weiss lifted Myternaster and used a glyph to open the door. Klein entered and handed her his scroll, he father had taken hers soon after she arrived.

“You asked me to alert you if I found any news about your teammates, I believe you will find this article of interest.”

Weiss looked at the headline and her eyes grew wide with shock and horror. ‘White Fang leader arrested’ She quickly scanned the rest of the document and her fears were confirmed. Blake had been arrested and taken to that horrible mining prison up north. That place didn’t follow any of the Mantle Prison Codes but no one seemed to care because it only held faunus. Weiss handed Klein his scroll.

“Thank you for showing me this Klein. Even if it is terrible news.”

“I’m sorry Miss. Schnee.” Klein gave a small bow and left the room.

Weiss felt tears start to form in her eyes but she quickly forced them back down. There had to be something she could do. Blake had nothing to do with the fall of Beacon. The White Fang must be using her as a scapegoat. Weiss sat down at her vanity desk and tried to figure out what she could do.

~~

Yang felt numb. Her days had been filled with laying about the house. Her depression making everything feel pointless. Why did she have to run away? Yang thought they had been closer than that. Maybe she was wrong and Blake didn’t feel the same way she did.

Yang sighed and turned on the tv. She normally would have changed away from the news but the current story made her freeze.

White Fang leader arrested

Did they get Adam? Yang watched hoping the monster that did this was actually caught only to have the color drain from her face when they showed a picture of the arrest.

They arrested Blake.

That couldn’t be right. Blake wasn’t working with the Fang anymore, right? Yang’s mind reeled with the question. Was Blake telling the truth back at Beacon? Or was she undercover? Yang suddenly felt an anger she hadn’t felt in a long time. In almost a moment the depression she felt was pushed away by the pure fire of her anger.

Yang ran upstairs and grabbed the arm she had refused to even look at for the last few days since it arrived. She grimaced as it connected and her nerves felt something for the first time since the fall. She quickly changed her clothes, left a note for her dad, and drove out on bumblebee. 

She had to find him. If she found him, he could tell her the truth. And then she would kill him.


End file.
